Rush: Santorum robocalls right on

Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday defended Rick Santorum for robocalling Democrats in Michigan this week, suggesting that the Republican establishment should be “patting him on the back” for the strategy.

“You know damn well the Republican establishment is embarrassed of its base. And you know damn well they don’t think they can win a general election with just Republican base voters showing up. You know as well as I do the Republican establishment is out there saying, ‘We’ve got to get independents.’ In fact, they’re more worried about getting independents than they are us,” Limbaugh said on his radio show.

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He continued, “That’s what Santorum is doing in Michigan. They ought to be patting him on the back. Santorum is implementing their strategy admittedly in a primary election, not general, but he is doing it.”

Limbaugh’s defense of Santorum’s strategy in the Wolverine State is in stark contrast to the Mitt Romney campaign’s outrage. Just hours before polls closed in Michigan and Arizona on Tuesday, Romney was busy blasting the robocalls on the campaign trail, accusing his rival of using “dirty tricks” to try to beat him in the state where he was born.

“Republicans have to recognize there’s a real effort to kidnap our primary process. And if we want Republicans to nominate the Republican who takes on Barack Obama, I need Republicans to get out and vote and say no to the, the dirty tricks of a desperate campaign,” Romney told reporters at his Michigan campaign headquarters.

According to an audio of the call, the brief message asks Michigan Democrats to cast their ballots for Santorum, citing Romney’s opposition to the auto bailouts – “a slap in the face to every Michigan worker.”

“Join Democrats who are going to send a loud message to Massachusetts Mitt Romney by voting for Rick Santorum for president,” the call says.

Limbaugh, who has not endorsed in the 2012 race but has spoken favorably of Santorum throughout this election cycle, said Tuesday that there is no problem with reaching over the political aisle if it is “done for the right reason.”

“There are, and particularly in Michigan, there are a lot of Reagan Democrats who are more socially conservative than there are moderate Republicans,” he said, according to a transcript of his show. “And it’s an open primary state, Santorum’s appealing to them. There are a lot of Reagan Democrats, and Obama has said he’s not going to go after those voters.”

The conservative radio host also noted that in “Realville,” the Republican establishment is freely admitting that it cannot be successful by simply winning over its base – a concept that Limbaugh credited Santorum of understanding as the 2012 hopeful attempts to woo Democrats in Michigan.

“He’s doing it amidst all this talk that Romney is the one who actually appeals to the independents and the Reagan Democrats,” Limbaugh said. “We’ve heard from the establishment that Romney’s the guy to do that, Romney’s the only guy in this Republican bunch that can go out and get the independents, and yet who’s doing it?”